Championship battles will be the order of weekend as the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia season concludes this weekend with a 21-strong field confirmed for Adelaide.
A number of familiar faces from current times and days of old are confirmed to compete in the event including the likes of Jamie Whincup, Paul “The Dude” Morris and DTM driver Kelvin van der Linde.
There will also be a touch of something special at the event, one of both generations of the Bentley Continental GT3 confirmed to take part. Mike Bailey and Brett Hobson will take to the wheel of the newer generation Continental whilst Matthew Belford will pilot the older.
It’s the second round of the GT World Challenge Australia season where a Kiwi has not taken part, Shane van Gisbergen instead focussing on rounding out his Supercars season in style. The other round he missed was at The Bend, shortly after Rally New Zealand, whilst he recovered from Covid.
Three 40 minute races are what the season ultimately comes down to, Yasser Shahin 11 points to the good over a charging Prince Jefri Ibrahim, Liam Talbot also in contention close behind.
Form is definitely on the side of Ibrahim after victory with Broc Feeney in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International earlier this month, however Shahin was dominant in the earlier part of the season with race wins at Phillip Island, Queensland Raceway and Sandown.
Ibrahim will be joined by Nick Foster in the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG-GT3 whilst Shahin will have Audi factory driver Christopher Mies for company in The Bend Motorsport Park Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
The other Triple Eight entry will also return, following a spectacular rollover at the top of the mountain at Bathurst, Ibrahim’s brother Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim partnering Jamie Whincup once again. They’ll be using a spare chassis following that crash, sourced from the team’s GT World Challenge Asia pool with that competition finishing earlier in the year.
The race weekend also features former Supercars veteran Morris taking part in his first race since the 2021 Bathurst 6-Hour. He’s replacing son Nash Morris in the Daimler Trucks Brisbane Mercedes-AMG GT4 in partnership with Mark Griffith.
The other Audi factory driver, van der Linde, will also compete following the 2022 DTM season where he finished ninth. He’ll partner Tony Bates in the C-Tech Laser Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Other names to feature this weekend include Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 2022 winner Thomas Sargent, Porsche Carrera Cup Pro-Am Sam Shahin and Sir Jack Brabham’s Grandson, Sam Brabham.
Qualifying for the weekend takes place on Friday at 11.50am with Race 1 at 4.35pm that day. Race 2 is on Saturday at 12.05pm followed by Race 3 at 11.10am on Sunday.
All racing will be shown live on Sky Sport 5 (055).
